My 11 Goals for 2011

"May I invite you to rise to the great potential within you. But don’t reach beyond your capacity. Don’t set goals beyond your capacity to achieve. Don’t feel guilty or dwell on thoughts of failure. Don’t compare yourself with others. Do the best you can, and the Lord will provide the rest. Have faith and confidence in Him, and you will see miracles happen in your life and the lives of your loved ones." — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I absolutely love that quote! For the past week, I have been reflecting on how I can improve myself better this new year. I have came up with eleven realistic goals for myself that I feel will not only benefit myself but for my whole family! I will do my best in accomplishing them! My 11 goals for 2011 are the following:

1. Organization and Time Management- get my recipe book organized! My recipe box is a cluttered mess and difficult to find anything! For my birthday 2010, my girls got me a photo album, dividers, and clear plastic sheets. I have been S L O W L Y compiling my favorite recipes either typing them or copying and pasting them into a file. In the future, I will print them out and add them to my book. Basically, over the years, I have collected recipes from all over the internet, cook books, family members, relief society sisters, and friends. I thought having all of my recipes in ONE book would reduce some time and stress in preparing a perfect menu plan.



2.Spiritual- read the Book of Mormon every night with my family. Improve on our church attendance, tithing/fast offerings, family home evening, and daily family prayers! Write in my gratitude journal!



3. Health and Fitness-Continue to shed some pounds by dieting and exercising. I want to keep track of my progress by journaling my food everyday on My Fitness Pal and exercise at least 5 times a week. Over the past few months, I have been doing Turbo Jam  which is a lot of fun shaking my body for 20-60 minutes a day! It is an AWESOME workout filled with aerobics, dance moves, weights, and kick boxing! When it gets warmer outside, I will start jogging again. I would love to enter another race. I have lost 17 pounds so far and need to continue my weight loss goals.



4. Meal Plan-Try a new recipe at least twice a month and get the kids involved! Instead of making the same entrées over and over again. I want to try some new recipes, which hopefully pleases the children's taste buds! My husband and I love to create food masterpieces in the kitchen. In the past, cooking has been a fun family activity for all of us. The kids love making pizzas, baking cookies, decorating cup cakes, making bagels, and so forth. I really want us to experience new flavors and add more recipes to my book!



5. Education- Register and declare my major as nursing at Salt Lake Community College. First, I need to request my college transcripts from Utah Valley University. Next, I will meet with a SLCC career advisor to discuss my credits that will transfer from UVU and get the list of classes that I still need to take before I can apply to the nursing program. In addition, I may need to get re-certified as an nursing assistant. So I may need to take the 6 week course and pass the written and skills tests. Twelve years ago, I worked as a certified nurse's assistant in a nursing home. It is frustrating to me to have to do the class over again. I believe it is a requirement to be a current licensed nursing assistant to get on the nursing school waiting list at SLCC.



6. Career- Get a job... After I complete my CNA training, CPR certification class, and become a licensed certified Nurse's Assistant in the State of Utah, I will find a part time nursing assistant job during the hours while the girls are at school.



7. Reading-Read more Nicholas Sparks books! How can I say that I am a Nicholas Sparks fan when I have not read all his books. I still need to read his following books:

Safe Haven

True Believer

At First Sight

A Bend in the Road

The Rescue

The Wedding

Nights in Rodanthe

The Lucky One

A Walk to Remember

I saw A Walk to Remember Movie and absolutely loved it! I own most of these books and they are just sitting on a shelf collecting dust!



8. Scrapping-Get caught up on my digital scrap-booking memories. It seems like that is always one of my New Year's resolutions, but this time I will be more specific. I would love to finish my daughters baby and toddler years books and get them printed out sometime this year! In order to do that, I need a better working computer that can handle Adobe Photoshop Elements 8
, lol!



9. Financial- I would like to budget our money wisely. My father and mother in-law have taught us a valuable lesson about managing our resources better. We want to be more like them. We will save, save, and save for a rainy day!



10. Developing Talents-- I have a creative itch! Last month, I made some adorable bookmarks and a darling picture frame. I will blog more about those later. Anyway, I want to explore some more hybrid creations using my digital scrap-booking materials as well as other crafting supplies. A couple months ago, Hubby and I walked around Hobby Lobby. Oooh, there are so many crafts that are exploding in my mind that I want create. My goal is to make many pieces of art that I can display in my home and share with others.



11. Self Reliant- Learn how to make strawberry and pear jam! As well as can some fruit this summer. I have an incredible visiting teaching companion who is very self reliant. She has inspired me to learn more about gardening, canning, making juices, and so forth! Thanks Ruthann for being a great example to me on living a more provident life-style!



I absolutely love that last canning image and it's appropriate to end this blog post now saying YES, WE CAN!!! Bring on 2011!!!!